Vlaardingen man arrested for sextorting 5 women for years; Stole over €10,000
The police arrested a 23-year-old man from Vlaardingen on Tuesday on suspicion of sexually extorting five women. He built relationships with the women for months or years and then threatened to make their nude images public. He extorted over €10,000 from the women, the police said on Wednesday.
The man made contact with his victims through chat rooms on online video games or social media platforms. He slowly convinced them to move their conversations over to WhatsApp or meet up in person.
According to the police, the man maintained relationships with the women for months or years. He persuaded them to share nude photos. He also obtained their login details for the women’s social media accounts, which gave him access to their private images.
The man used these images to sextort the women, threatening to share them online or with the women’s family and friends unless they gave him money. The women paid him over €10,000, the police said.
The impact of sextortion on victims is enormous. And in this case, doubly so given the time the man spent building relationships with his victims. The victims are from Arnhem, Doetinchem, Amsterdam, The Hague, and Breda. The police are investigating whether other sextortion reports may be linked to this case.
The man is in custody for questioning. The investigation is ongoing.
“Victims of these crimes experience fear and shame. Boys, girls, and even adult men and women can be victims,” said Elles van Veenen of the Oost Nederland police. “Let’s be clear: the victim is never to blame for sextortion. Therefore, if you find yourself in this situation, I would like to offer the advice: talk about it. Seek help.”
Roughly half of people aged 12 to 25 living in the Netherlands have had to deal with online sexual abuse, with over 200,000 of them annually victimized by online sexual intimidation, including sextortion, according to the victim services center Slachtofferhulp. There is an overall rising trend in the Netherlands regarding the number of people coming forward and identifying as victims of blackmail and extortion schemes involving sexually explicit material.
At least 5,000 people requested assistance from the assistance organization Helpwanted in 2023 alone. “These are shocking numbers. Because they are not just numbers, there is a victim behind every sextortion case on which the extortion can have a disruptive influence. And we know that a lot of victims do not look for help,” said Nikki-Lee Janssen, a team leader at Helpwanted, in a statement last year.
One recent scheme even saw victims of sextortion being forced to carry out crimes on behalf of the extorter, Helpwanted told the PowNed podcast Het Misdaadbureau in August. These victims are already hesitant to report incidents when they have been sexually violated, and also do not want to incriminate themselves if they have been forced to commit a crime.
“So the willingness to report is, of course, much lower,” Rivka Otten from Helpwanted told the podcast. “That is incredibly difficult, and that, of course, is what makes sextortion so incredibly effective.”
